Any Other Name
by electraheartss
Summary: When Rose Weasley talks herself into a corner regarding a date to Teddy and Victoire's wedding and enlists the help of Scorpius Malfoy, he somehow has to pretend to everyone else that he's in love with Rose, pretend to Rose that he's not, and pretend to his best friend Albus Potter that this isn't as hard for him as it is.


"Bye mum, bye dad." Rose Weasley said as she leant down to hug her mother goodbye. Hermione, while not being a particularly short woman, was certainly not anywhere close to her daughter, who was six feet tall flat-footed. She was willowy and thin, and no matter how she tried she didn't blend in anywhere but with the other Weasley-Potters. Her huge mass of bright red curls extended to her waist unstraightened and her face was dotted with more freckles than the sky had stars and it was painfully obvious to everyone she met whose daughter she was.

She climbed onto the train. Hugo didn't stick around her for long; the second there was any room around her a mass of scarlet curls not unlike her own rushed past her. He was thirteen this year and a pain in her arse. She loved him as much as ever but since he'd turned into a teenager he thought he was better than everyone around him. Mostly she was just worried, as this new pretentious nature wasn't exactly going to win him any friends.

She hurried down the aisle, peering into the compartment windows, until she saw what she was looking for and opened the compartment doors. Four or five Weasley-Potter kids sat crammed in the seats, but even so when they saw her they scooted to make room. She grinned at them and sat down, beginning to take stock of her various red-headed cousins. Molly and Lucy were there, as were Lily Luna, who grinned and waved, Roxanne, who was too busy texting someone to give Rose any more than an absentminded nod, and Louis, whose barely-strawberry blond hair was a stark contrast with the sea of redheads. Rose slid into the seat next to Roxanne and elbowed her gently.

"Who're you texting so furiously, Rox?" Rose teased. Roxanne blushed but said nothing, and Lily took it upon herself to explain.

"It's Lorcan Scamander!" she shouted gleefully. Roxanne frantically shushed her.

"It's Lysander!" Roxanne said. "And keep it down!"

Rose gasped in mock horror. "Roxy-road, are you _dating a Scamander?"_

"No! We're just friends. And don't call me that!" Rose laughed, but decided to drop it. She turned away as Lily and Lucy cackled. She leaned across the table to Louis.

"How're Vic and Teddy?" She asked. Louis looked startled.

"Fine. Good. Great. Shit," Louis looked embarrassed. "I've said too much."

Puzzled but happy, Rose chatted amicably with her cousins the rest of the train ride. As the castle approached, though, she excused herself to go change into her robes, chiding herself for not thinking of it before and wondering why Louis had been acting so weirdly when she brought up Victoire and Teddy. Had something happened between them, she had to wonder. So wrapped up in her thoughts was she that she didn't notice the other person in the hallway until she slammed into him and toppled them both to the ground.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, practically launching herself backwards before extending a hand to whatever poor sap she'd just bulldozed to the floor. He took it and pulled himself up and then, finally, she realized who he was.

"It's no problem, really." Scorpius Malfoy said. He was taller than her by about an inch and a half, which was refreshing, as at her height she tended towards the taller side among her peers. He ran a hand through his platinum blond hair and she looked into his eyes. They were a silvery green, barely colored at all, and she thought they were absolutely stunning.

He'd really turned into a looker over the summer, she thought, and then immediately blushed at the idea. Hadn't June and Phoebe been gushing over having seen him in London in their letters? Pull yourself together, Rose. It's only Malfoy - haven't you been friends for five years?

"Scorpius!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. She pulled back quickly and resisted the urge to apologize.

"Hey, Red." he said, grinning easily, and she would've sworn his face was tinged pink had she been at all his type. Or anyone's type, for that matter. Shockingly, fifteen-year-old boys didn't tend to go for girls who were taller, smarter, and better at quidditch than they. Plus, she somehow managed to be plain-looking and unable to blend in in a crowd, which was a feat in and of itself.

"Look, I'd love to catch up, but we're nearly at the castle and I'm not even dressed yet," she said, gesturing at her plain clothes, "So I'll catch you at dinner?"

"Uh, yeah. Sounds good." He said, and she was off again like a bullet.

He knew it was her immediately, not by her rushed demeanor or her height, but by her absolutely preposterous amount of strikingly ginger hair. She'd stopped trying to keep it neat sometime last year, and they'd jokingly referred to it as "the cloud," there was so much of it. She'd somehow gotten not only her mother's Granger volume, but the Weasley-Potter trademark scarlet. She hated it - he loved it. Not that he'd ever tell her that.

He'd realized he fancied her towards the beginning of fourth year, when he'd shoved her for some jab at his hair _as though she had any right to talk_ and she'd joked that he just couldn't keep his hands off her and it'd hit a little too close to home - every time he saw her his stomach flopped and sometimes she grinned that grin at him and he kind of forgot how to breath. He'd told Albus and no one else, and he intended to keep it that way. The summer had been kind to her, he noted. She was somehow even taller than when he last saw her and gaining on him fast, and her ocean-blue eyes looked like something he could drown in. Scorpius bit his lip and his eyes flicked down to hers and damn it, he wanted to kiss her. Instead, he shook his head and stood there dumbfounded as she brushed past him.

"Scor!" someone shouted, and he whirled around. Standing in the aisle was his best friend Albus, who was smirking incessantly. Scorpius rolled his eyes and followed his friend into the compartment, shutting the door and pulling the blinds behind them.

"Still pining after my cousin, I see." It wasn't a question. Scorpius groaned.

"Will you leave me alone? Have you _seen_ how far out of my league she is? Nothing's going to happen there." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Albus gaped.

"You're such an idiot." was all he said.

The train pulled up, finally, and before they knew it they were sitting in the Great Hall listening to the first years being Sorted.

"Daisy Dursley." the Hat called, and Albus stiffened.

"What is it?" Scorpius asked, nudging him.

"That's… my third cousin, or something. My dad's cousin _who was horrible to him might I add_ married some witch and had a magical kid. And now she's here."

Scorpio looked around at the whole Potter-Weasley clan and saw their faces - some shocked, some horrified, some just amused.

"Slytherin!" shrieked the Hat. Albus sighed.

"Cheer up, Al. She's not her parents. My dad was horrible to yours, too, wasn't he? And we're best friends." Scorpius replied, clapping with the rest of his house. Al sighed.

"I guess you're right."

Rose gaped at Louis. "What do you mean, Vic and Teddy are getting married?" she asked incredulously.

"I said what I mean." he replied.

"And you're telling us now. On the first night back."

"Yes. The wedding is Christmas Eve." Louis said matter-of-factly. The Weasley-Potter section of the Gryffindor table burst into madness. Rose just sat there, dumbfounded.

James smirked at her. "You gonna be able to get a date in time for the wedding, Rosie?" She rolled her eyes.

"Could say the same to you, James."

"Ah, but you see, I've got a girlfriend." he winked.

"Yeah, and even she wouldn't go with you!" Lily interjected, walking up behind her brother and grinning. The whole table laughed.

"Oi, this is about pocket-full-of-Posies here, not me!" James swatted his sister's arm.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I've already got a boyfriend!" She blustered. _Damn._ She always let her Weasley temper and Gryffindor tendencies get the better of her.

"Really." James drawled. She felt her face heat up.

"Yes, really, and I'll prove it to you! Give me two days to talk to him." She could hear the words falling from her mouth but she refused to quite believe she was the one saying them.

Then, Rose Weasley stormed out of the Great Hall, down the corridor to the Room of Requirement. It appeared to her as a cosy room, complete with two chairs - two? - a steaming teapot, and a plate of cookies. She plopped down and sighed, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"I've really done it this time." she whispered to the empty room.

Scorpius stared at his friend as she stormed out of the room. He turned to Albus. "Should we…"

Albus only sighed. "She's fifteen, Scor. She can handle whatever the hell my family can throw at her."

"She looked really upset," he frowned, "I'm going after her."

"On your own head be it!" Albus called after him.

He found her, pacing around the room and alternately muttering to herself and shoving cookies into her mouth.

"Rose." Scorpius said, and she stopped in her tracks. "What happened?"

And suddenly she was clinging to his shoulders and talking so fast he only heard two or three of the thousand words she was saying and his arms were around her and his face was growing redder and redder and _god_ did he love this girl.

"Slow down. Tell me what happened." he said when she finally let go. He sat in the chair opposite her and watched her sip what he reasonably concluded was not her first cup of tea that day.

"Vic and Teddy are getting married and everyone was teasing me about not having a date to the wedding and I panicked and word-vomited and I told all of them I had a boyfriend when I don't and I don't know what I'm going to do because there's definitely no one willing to date me and it's not like there's anyone who'd be willing to fake it until the wedding either because you and Al are my only friends and Al's my cousin so, gross, and you're dating Maria Wood, and-"

"What? I'm not dating Maria."

She blinked at him. "You're not?"

"No? Rose, we dated for three weeks _last year_." he said.

"Oh," she whispered. Then, mustering up all her Gryffindor courage, she said, "Then would you be willing to pretend to be my boyfriend? Just until Christmas." she added hurriedly. His heart flopped in his chest, and he could feel his face heating up.

"I-"

"That was a stupid thing to ask, wasn't it? I'm sorry, Scorp, I didn't mean to-"

"I'll do it." he said. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. One condition, though - I don't want to keep this from Albus. He's our best friend, and it'd hurt him if we kept something like that from him." _Also, I've been hopelessly in love with you for years and he's the only one who knows and I don't want him telling you._

"Deal." She stood abruptly, pulling him up and into a hug. His breath caught in his throat. "Thank you." she mumbled into his hair.


End file.
